DeGross, M. (1994). Donovan’s Word Jar. Harper Trophy.
This chapter book is about a little boy named Donovan, who as the title indicates, keeps a jar that has a mounting collection of words in it. Each of the ten chapters has alliteration with the letter D happening in the titles, starting with “Donovan,” then “Donovan’s Discovery,” “Donovan’s Dilemma,” and proceeding with his name and “decision, delay, departure, dines, disappointment, diplomacy,” and finally “delight.” He has an epiphany one morning while eating breakfast, and reads the word “nutrition” on the box of cereal. When he said it aloud, he thought about how “he liked the way the word slid down his tongue and rolled off his lips.” That kicks off his curiosity and awareness that he has not been paying attention to all the words in the world, and he states: “I am going to start paying extra attention to words from now on. I bet there are trillions of words out there, words I’ve never noticed.” Some of the many words he collects includes: emporium, extraterrestrial, kaleidoscope, compromise, and perseverance. However, his collection soon begins to ooze from the jar, and he begins to worry about what to do with them all. Despite asking around for advice, he doesn’t find the answer until some of his Grandma’s neighbors get a hold of the words, and the words act as reminders, as eye openers, and as messages they pass to others. At first, Donovan is upset his jar is being dispersed, but then he realizes the amazing things and behaviors that the power of a single word brings to people, making them think. “They (the people) made me feel like a magician. My words changed them.” The author follows that statement with the description of his feelings: “The sunshine Donovan felt inside was shining all over his face.”
I shared this book with my class, and being the big vocabulary encourager in class, my students took to heart the importance of collecting words we found different, interesting, “juicy,” and fun to say. We look for words that we like the way they feel when we say them, that are fun to pronounce, and make us feel smarter. They asked if I had a jar we could use. (Do I have a jar? Hello?!? Have you seen my closets? I am a teacher! I have something for everything! They know that, they have seen my closets, so that’s why they asked!) Our jar began to overflow eventually as well, as words were discovered during reading workshop, from activities around school, and from things that they heard at home and outside world. (Words from read alouds already go on their own charts daily.) Before the word went in the jar, it had to be shared (we did once or twice a day to prevent a vocabulary inundation all day) and it had to be a meaty, interesting, fresh word. This vocabulary gathering developed into our classroom chart of “instead of said” where students were the active learners who when they came across a better, more descriptive word for “said” added it themselves during reading workshop time to a rough draft “collection poster” in which I recopied for neatness and final editing. The format of being long and skinny was fun for my students, because after I had recopied it after school one day, I taped all the segments together, tied the scroll with a ribbon (for presentation.) The next day, with great fanfare, I unrolled it in the classroom’s longest part, and they all said in unison, “WHOA!” They had found and thought of every last one of those words. We continued with another word, “good” (which we all know is sadly generic and overused), then “went”, and so on. The kids really love it! To see them with importance go to the chart and write words and use the book as a reference for spelling is powerful for them and for me to see, and to see them take their notebook paper or sticky note over to any chart in the room to jot down a vocabulary word to use during writing workshop has only helped to support their efforts as budding crafters of writing themselves.
This chapter book is about a little boy named Donovan, who as the title indicates, keeps a jar that has a mounting collection of words in it. Each of the ten chapters has alliteration with the letter D happening in the titles, starting with “Donovan,” then “Donovan’s Discovery,” “Donovan’s Dilemma,” and proceeding with his name and “decision, delay, departure, dines, disappointment, diplomacy,” and finally “delight.” He has an epiphany one morning while eating breakfast, and reads the word “nutrition” on the box of cereal. When he said it aloud, he thought about how “he liked the way the word slid down his tongue and rolled off his lips.” That kicks off his curiosity and awareness that he has not been paying attention to all the words in the world, and he states: “I am going to start paying extra attention to words from now on. I bet there are trillions of words out there, words I’ve never noticed.” Some of the many words he collects includes: emporium, extraterrestrial, kaleidoscope, compromise, and perseverance. However, his collection soon begins to ooze from the jar, and he begins to worry about what to do with them all. Despite asking around for advice, he doesn’t find the answer until some of his Grandma’s neighbors get a hold of the words, and the words act as reminders, as eye openers, and as messages they pass to others. At first, Donovan is upset his jar is being dispersed, but then he realizes the amazing things and behaviors that the power of a single word brings to people, making them think. “They (the people) made me feel like a magician. My words changed them.” The author follows that statement with the description of his feelings: “The sunshine Donovan felt inside was shining all over his face.”
I shared this book with my class, and being the big vocabulary encourager in class, my students took to heart the importance of collecting words we found different, interesting, “juicy,” and fun to say. We look for words that we like the way they feel when we say them, that are fun to pronounce, and make us feel smarter. They asked if I had a jar we could use. (Do I have a jar? Hello?!? Have you seen my closets? I am a teacher! I have something for everything! They know that, they have seen my closets, so that’s why they asked!) Our jar began to overflow eventually as well, as words were discovered during reading workshop, from activities around school, and from things that they heard at home and outside world. (Words from read alouds already go on their own charts daily.) Before the word went in the jar, it had to be shared (we did once or twice a day to prevent a vocabulary inundation all day) and it had to be a meaty, interesting, fresh word. This vocabulary gathering developed into our classroom chart of “instead of said” where students were the active learners who when they came across a better, more descriptive word for “said” added it themselves during reading workshop time to a rough draft “collection poster” in which I recopied for neatness and final editing. The format of being long and skinny was fun for my students, because after I had recopied it after school one day, I taped all the segments together, tied the scroll with a ribbon (for presentation.) The next day, with great fanfare, I unrolled it in the classroom’s longest part, and they all said in unison, “WHOA!” They had found and thought of every last one of those words. We continued with another word, “good” (which we all know is sadly generic and overused), then “went”, and so on. The kids really love it! To see them with importance go to the chart and write words and use the book as a reference for spelling is powerful for them and for me to see, and to see them take their notebook paper or sticky note over to any chart in the room to jot down a vocabulary word to use during writing workshop has only helped to support their efforts as budding crafters of writing themselves.
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